


Gettysburg, Addressed

by Missy



Category: Gone With the Wind - All Media Types, Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canny Scarlett Is Canny, Character Study, Civil War, Everywoman Treat, Gen, Gettysburg, Humor, Reunions, Road Trips, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 20:46:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15081398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: When Melanie learns about Ashley's injury at the battle of Gettysburg and that he's awaiting furlough while recuperating in a hotel room, she decides it's best for her to take Beau and run toward the border and get her husband.Much to Scarlett's dismay.





	Gettysburg, Addressed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maidenjedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidenjedi/gifts).



“This is a fool’s game, Melly.” Scarlett was pressed against the sidewall of the pony cart, shooting daggers at anyone who dared bump into her. Getting as far as Pennsylvania on a pony cart was not her idea of a good time, but it was better than waiting for the world to end in Atlanta.

Melly was clutching the letter she’d gotten from Ashley a month before in her hand, and baby Beau was flat against her breast. “As long as I have something of Ashley in my arms by the end of the evening it will have been worth it.” Then the baby cut off their conversation and she bent her head toward it, making soft nonsense sounds with her tongue that were inscrutable to Scarlet’s ears. She still didn't know how Melanie could stomach Beau; she'd nearly died birthing him and yet somehow she managed not to display any frustration with his existence.

She still doesn’t know how Melanie begged her way onto the northward-bound cart. They’d been driving for days with her in the front seat, talking nonsense talk to her son while they moved northward. She’d started this adventure hoping to see Ashley and convince him to return to Atlanta and out of this damnable war; now she simply wanted a soft bed and warm food. She wrinkled her nose as the scent of manure caressed her nostrils.

“What is that godawful stench?” she asked.

“Pennsylvania,” said the wagonmaster beside Melly.

Scarlett took in this news with a shrug and a toss of her hair. “Fiddle dee dee! If I’d have know we’d have to go the country way I would have asked Captain Butler to take me in his carriage as he offered.”

“Don’t complain, lady,” the guy next to her said. “Unless you’ve got something against Northern cows.”

“As a matter of fact…”

“Scarlett!” Melanie tushed her.

Scarlett frowned and crossed her arms over her breast. She said nothing else as the truck trundled into Gettysburg, and the smell of manure slowly turned into the more alarming and familiar scents of war.

 

*** 

 

 

They had to beg at the doors of several Yankee hospitals, where they were treated with a politeness that actually shocked Scarlett. Each time, Melanie presented her baby and plead for the life of his father, only to be turned away. At the last field of tents, however, Ashley’s commanding officer buttonholed her and dragged her aside. Scarlet blatantly eavesdropped.

“The Velvet Hotel,” she muttered, and led Scarlet on another chase down the long, cobbled streets of Gettysburg. She held her skirts up and chased after Melly who was still talking to Beau as if Scarlet wasn’t with her.

At last they came to the hotel. The routine repeated itself, but this time they were led up a back staircase until they found a tall, blond man sitting up in a chair. She was all ready to throw herself into his arms, to make him see that she was the one who missed him, needed him, after toiling away so endlessly at Tara for so long.

Instead, a mouse roared. “Melly?” Ashley was looking right through her, at Beau and at Melanie.

“Oh Ashley,” Melanie sighed, and fell into his arms.

Scarlett sighed too, and leaned against the wall. Some moments simply couldn’t be interrupted, and some scenes she couldn’t compete with. But, she thought with a grin, there were advantages to being unattached.

“Miss,” harrumphed the elderly, grey-bearded man who was. “Would you like to have a drink of water?”

“No” she said, turning toward the officer with a megawatt –bright smile. “You wouldn’t happen to know where a lady might get a bath, would you?”


End file.
